POWELL.] COMBINATION—VOCALIC MUTATION. 5 
there may also be distinguished two kinds of elements, in some sense 
corresponding to themes and formative parts. The theme is a word the 
meaning of which is determined by the formative word placed by it ; 
that is, the theme is a word having many radically different meanings ; 
with which meaning it is to be understood is determined only by the 
formative word, which thus serves as its label. The ways in which the 
theme words are thus labeled by the formative word are very curious, 
but the subject cannot be entered into here. 
When words are combined by compounding, the formative elements 
cannot so readily be distinguished from the theme; nor for the purposes 
under immediate consideration can compounding be well separated from 
agglutination. 
When words are combined by agglutination, theme and formative 
part usually appear. The formative parts are affixes; and affixes may 
be divided into three classes, prefixes, suffixes, and infixes. These affixes 
are often called incorporated particles. 
In those Indian languages where combination is chiefly by agglutina- 
tion, that is, by the use of affixes, 7. ¢., incorporated particles, certain 
parts of the conjugation of the verb, especially those which denote 
gender, number, and person, are effected by the use of article pronouns ; 
but in those languages where article pronouns are not found the verbs 
are inflected to accomplish the same part of their conjugation. Per- 
haps, when we come more fully to study the formative elements in these 
more highly inflected languages, we may discover in such elements 
greatly modified, 7. e., worn out, incorporated pronouns. 
Ii.—THE PROCESS BY VOCALIC MUTATION. 
Here, in order to form a new word, one or more of the vowels of the 
old word are changed, as in man—men, where an e is substituted for a ; 
ran—run, where u is substituted for a; lead—led, where e, with its proper 
sound, is substituted for ea with its proper sound. This method is used 
to a very limited extent in English. When the history of the words in 
which it occurs is studied it is discovered to be but an instance of the 
wearing out of the different elements of combined words; but in the He- 
brew this method prevails to a very large extent, and scholars have not 
yet been able to discover its origin in combination as they have in Eng- 
lish. It may or may not have been an original grammatic process, but 
because of its importance in certain languages it has been found neces- 
sary to deal with it as a distinct and original process. 
